One reason we chose Spokane as our new home was where we could, what we could experience if we travelled 2-4-6-8 hours from our front door. Not only the incredible places, but the diversity in experience as well.
We’ve done and seen some pretty awesome things this year. Here is a photo essay of our year in Spokane, experiencing and enjoying all four seasons.
Thirty minutes down the road, we spent our summer on the Spokane River at Post Falls and tubed the riverway up to Lake Coeur D’Alene. Good times.
Much closer to home was the rope swing adventure:
Not a bad start to our year.
Then school started and finished. See how they’ve grown:
At least their hair has grown.
All Spokanites will tell you that winter is their least favorite season, then they will all tell you that spring, summer and fall are their favorite months. Fall was an incredibly colorful end to summer.
We went to our first corn maze that would never legal, insured or permitted in Southern California. The novelty of this insane adventure near the Idaho state line will be etched in my children’s brains forever. My eight year old brought home his daily journal from school. He wrote “We went to a corn maze. People chased us with real chainsaws and there was a joker that scared me and my brothers.” Recorded sound effects can have a huge impact on an 8 year old. I laughed remembering the moment, that he wrote about it, and how frightened we all were by the 6’5″ scary Joker. Here are my children of the corn
Summer and Fall we went to Green Bluff, WA, straight to the farmers to pick peaches, blackberries and pumpkins.
Then….
We didn’t let the cold stop us. We travelled about an hour north to Elk, WA to cut down a Christmas Tree.
Old man winter supplied an “easy winter” by Spokane standards. Thank you. With snow arriving late, we only went skiing four times. Only. There are 5 mountain resorts within 2 hours of home and we managed to get to four of the five, missing the one closest to home, Mt. Spokane. We skied Silver Mtn (ok, this is the one I sat with ski anxiety in the lodge), 49 degrees North, Lookout and Schweitzer. Lookout was great for early snow; Silver was too steep for the boys and I (I’m sticking the boys in my anti-steep anxiety zone); 49 degrees North was my personal favorite and got me over my issues and back on my skis; and Schweitzer, at the end of March, won all of our hearts.
Our two hour travels took us skiing, our 4 hour circles took us to west to Seattle and east to Missoula and Butte Montana.
Back in Spokane, spring color exploded with color. This beautiful lilac peeked through my backyard fence.
For now we’re staying close to home. Who needs to go anywhere with this spectacular scenery in Spokane?
multi-hyphenated-me 